October 20, 2009 Hoppie's to diversion channel (48.9)

October 20, 2009

Hoppie’s Marina (158.5) to Little River Diversion Channel (48.9)

“Who are we and what did we do with Mark and Carol?” We were up at 6:00 to make preparations to leave. Mark added a quart of oil to each of Grateful’s engines and filled the water tank. Yesterday, we filled our tanks with 305.5 gallons of fuel at $2.74. Our goal today is to get to Cape Girardeau diversion channel for an anchorage (110 miles). We knew we could do this if the debris didn’t slow us up. Without lock & dams on this part of the Mississippi, the current is much faster and we have gained 2.5 knots per hour. If it weren’t for the strong southerly wind, we might have gained more – we have heard that the Mississippi is about 4 knots at this point. Again, today with the strong current and south wind, turbulence, and tow wakes, we found ourselves fighting up to 3 foot waves and struggling to keep true to course. Upon reflection, this was a harder day than expected – we had to work to steer and we were on constant lookout for deadheads as well as tows. We did, however, make it 110 miles ahead of schedule and in roughly 8 hours.

The first picture is Hoppie’s Marina as we were leaving that morning – nothing more than a conglomeration of barges to tie up to. It is also one of the last places for us to get diesel for the next 250 miles.

Along the way we again saw the constant dredging in many forms. It is imperative that we pass with minimum wake in order not to disrupt the dredging operation. Unexpectedly, we observed strip mining of the bluffs – it looks like they were mining the limestone. Cape Girardeau has a mural painted on their city wall, however, it was hard to capture with the shadows. Shortly after that we were able to get into the Little River Diversion Channel.

The Little River Diversion Channel is a calm and peaceful anchorage and the water depth was at 17-18 feet. We set the bow anchor upstream and then made ready to set out a stern anchor. To do this we needed to break out the kayak. I offered to do this task as I would have to take Port to shore this way, but Mark did this chore. The kayak looks small on him. I later used the kayak to bring Port to land and to do some exploring. Port had one training day on the St. Croix to learn how to get in and ride behind me. Amazingly, after we finally got him on the back platform, he readily got into the kayak and we were off. The problem was the shore – it was all clay and mud. Port and I came back with 20 pounds of it on us and in the kayak. What a mess and we have to do it again in the morning. Exploring resulted in all sorts of new sticky weeds in Port’s coat. This was a night that Port did not get to sleep with me – he wasn’t happy.